martes, 10 de marzo de 2009

Under the form of a bird

"Severus, a heretic, who condemned the representing of the Holy Grhost under the form of a dove, was anathematised by the second Council of Nice, held in the eighth century. Arming himself with the pretext that the Holy Ghost ought not to be represented under the form of a bird, Severus carried away the doves of gold and silver that had been suspended above altars and baptismal fonts. t The interested heresy of Severus reminds us of the conduct of Dionysius the tyrant, who removed from the statues of Jupiter, the golden mantles with which they had been covered by the devotion of the pious, pretending that such a garment was too cold in winter and too warm in summer."